'Damage limitation' for Hamilton in Spain

Lewis Hamilton admitted that it was a case of 'damage limitation' as he collected second place at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Hamilton slipped to third at the start and had to switch to a three-stop strategy in order to pass Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton emerged from his final stop ahead of Vettel but was significantly adrift of team-mate Nico Rosberg, who went on to comfortably win the race.

"I had a poor start, [it's been a] long time since [I had] such a bad start, I tried my best to recover, nearly back to fourth at the start, [I] tried to fight, unfortunately this track is the worst for overtaking," he said.

"[It's] impossible to follow here which is a shame, [I] don’t know how it was further back but at the front no matter what you do you can’t get close enough even with DRS."

A slow first pit stop scuppered Hamilton's hopes of passing Vettel at the first round of stops but by switching to the Prime tyres for his second stint, Hamilton was able to emerge from his final stop ahead of the Ferrari driver.

"I did enough in the first stint but had a long pit stop, [I] had to do it all again but towards the end with the three stopper I was able to get by," he said.

"If I was on track I wouldn’t have got past. I was glad to get the points for the team and it was damage limitation."

Hamilton still leads the championship, albeit with his advantage over Rosberg cut to 20 points.